Enjoying the Best Beer or Wine with your Meal

When visiting the Steak House Cincinnati loves you can enhance your dining experience by trying to pair the best wine with your meal. In fact, with the growing trend to artisanal and craft beers, pairing beer with meals has also become an art form. Whether your pleasure is a robust red with your steak or a chilled ale with your burger, here are a few things to consider when ordering drinks with your meal.

Pairing Wine with Meals
Nothing goes better with beautifully grilled or roasted meats such as veal, steak and lamb as a robust Merlot or Pinot Noir. If you enjoy food with a bit of spice look for a full bodied Baco Noir. Red meats and pastas served with red sauces go well with Shiraz, a hearty red wine. A sweeter white such as reisling or gewürztraminer make a refreshing apertif before dinner and is also a popular choice to enjoy with desserts, especially fruit desserts. However when choosing shrimp or fish dishes these less dry whites also work well. Chicken dishes that are a little more hearty or spicy such as wings, chicken stew or a pot pie are ideal with a Gamay. If you are ordering a more refined chicken entrée such as roasted chicken choose a merlot. As you can see the old rule of pairing whites with seafood and chicken and reds with red meats is not always the best way to go.

Pairing Beer with Meals
When ordering burgers, spicy foods, steak and wings ale is perfect. Lager is the choice for lighter, richer fare such as grilled pork, shellfish, pasta dishes such as pesto and lighter chicken and seafood dishes. Roasted, barbecued, grilled foods and rich sauces or slow cooked meats found in stews or braised entrees go well with darker beers such as stout. If Bock Beer is on the menu it is ideal with cheese sauces on pastas, spicy sausage and seared foods such as steak and beef. If you are choosing a lighter meal it might seem counter intuitive to choose beer but a pilsner goes well with salads and fish and even a nice spicy entree.